This invention relates to a system for causing the tape of a tape player to oscillate longitudinally at the point at which the tape passes the tape player read head to thereby facilitate tape editing and the like.
It is well known that in the course of recording music on tape, oftentimes it is not possible to record a complete composition satisfactorily in one so-called continuous "take". Rather, portions or segments of the composition must be recorded separately (and possibly more than once), evaluated, and then the best portions selected for splicing together to form what hopefully will have the sound of a single continuous recording of the entire composition.
Selection of the different portions of the composition to be spliced together heretofore has been done by listening to each portion until the approximate location for cutting the tape is determined. This location in one selected portion of the composition must match as closely as possible the location in the next adjacent selected portion so that when spliced together, the splice will not be noticeable when the tape is played. When the approximate location for splicing a tape is determined, the tape is stopped and then the tape reels are manually rotated back and forth to thereby move the tape back and forth across the playback or read head. The purpose of this is to find the precise location were the tape is to be marked and cut. After determining two such corresponding locations in two recorded portions of the composition, the tape is cut in both locations and the two selected portions are spliced together. The above described process is referred to as "editing" and the splice locations are called "edits".
In order to locate specific points in a musical composition, the person editing the tapes must listen for certain sounds. Of course, the pitch of any sound is changed when the speed of movement of the tape containing the sound is changed. Thus, precise location of a particular sound is facilitated if the editor can manually move the tape at a constant speed to maintain constancy of the pitch. This is difficult to do since movement of the tape is carried out manually by rotating the tape reels. If the tape movement is slowed in an attempt to "zero in" on a desired sound or note, the pitch may be lowered and the sound intensity weakened to the point where the sound is barely audible. All of these problems complicate the finding of precise splicing locations on a tape, and prolong and make tedious the editing process.